Requires Improvement
Recently, I have been thinking a lot about the unwanted sexual attention that women have received from men over the years in alarming volumes. For anyone who read my recent piece on unsolicited dick pics, you will know that it is a topic that I find extremely troubling and sadly as we can see from the headlines of late, all too prevalent.
In theory, we all know that indecent exposure of the unwanted variety is completely unacceptable and abhorrent but the unfortunate reality is that with the rise of technology, dating sites and apps flooding our existence, it is growing to be an enormous problem and unless we talk about it, challenge it and hold people accountable, it is not going to be something that just disappears on its own. When writing my piece, Unsolicited Dick Pics - The Modern Day Flashing? I explored my own and other women’s experiences with adult men which was grim enough but over the past week I have been saddened to read the recent stories that have surfaced about young boys at schools sending unwanted explicit images to their female peers. To be entirely honest though, although I felt upset, I can’t say that I was particularly shocked. The start of this year saw a huge outcry as an open letter from a former student of Kings College Wimbledon, one of the highest performing private schools in the UK, explained to the headteacher how she and other former female pupils had been exposed to alarming levels of sexual harassment from their male peers. She criticised the school, describing it as a ‘hotbed of sexual violence’ and accusing it of holding a ‘deep rooted culture of misogyny’. This in turn sparked many other female students, both from Kings and other top private schools, to come forward to tell their stories of sexual harassment. So now a few months later, it is unsurprising to see that many more schools have joined the ranks of these, as places where girls no longer feel safe. A recent major Ofsted survey revealed that a staggering 9 out of 10 female pupils have found themselves harassed by male pupils and have been sent unwanted and explicit content by them regularly but worse still are the accounts of some of these girls who, upon receiving the unwanted sexual images, admitted to feeling pressured to send back photos of themselves, either through direct demands from boys or because they felt coerced into doing so despite the fact that they didn’t feel comfortable or want to do so. Re-sharing of their images was also common, the survey found, as well as many boys “not taking no for an answer”.
Yet Ofsted, the organisation who quite literally hold the responsibility of ensuring that schools are keeping young people safe, have suggested that boys sending unsolicited explicit images of themselves is not a safeguarding concern. Although Chief Inspector Amanda Spielman said that she found it “alarming that many children and young people, particularly girls feel they have to accept sexual harassment as part of growing up” after their major report last week following the survey, she also presented a conflicted message when questioned on Monday by Labour MP for Gateshead, Ian Mearn when she implied that many of the things taking place lay on a “spectrum” of sexual harassment and that some of the actions could be deemed to be “clumsy explorations of emerging sexuality” rather than things that should be pulled into a safeguarding investigation.
Well first things first, it’s a criminal offence to send an explicit image to a minor, even if you are a minor yourself, so how on earth Ofsted can think that it's acceptable to deny it as a safeguarding concern is astounding. Also let’s just stop and think for a moment that if this is something that is being done regularly by boys at such a young age, is the hope that they will just magically grow out of it as they explore this “spectrum”? Boys will be boys and all that. What about the more realistic scenario that they will grow into adult men who continue to think that it is acceptable to send unwanted explicit images because they haven’t had any intervention or teaching around the subject at the key time. It is crucial that something is done to address this issue as a toxic combination of unhealthy consumption of social media, easy access to pornography and smart phones becoming more like an extra limb than a practical device has cultivated this nasty situation where digital harassment amongst young people is now rife and can be extremely damaging to those on the receiving end.
It is my belief that at the heart of this problem is the real lack of comprehensive and rigorous teaching around sex, relationships and consent in schools. Having worked in the secondary education system for 12 years it is very obvious that there is nowhere near as much importance placed on some PSHE topics such as sex ed as there are on academic subjects. And absolutely no shade to Geography or any other valid academic school subjects but bearing in mind the proportion of their lives that will be taken up with sex and relationships don’t we think that it’s more important that our young people have a better knowledge of them than they do of oxbow lakes? Considering that I spent 5 years in one of the most progressive schools that I have ever come across, with forward thinking, open minded staff and students and even our sex education provision was poor is really saying something. I can only imagine what it is like in your average secondary school. Whilst the responsibility doesn’t lie only with schools, clearly it is a good place to start. As a nation I think we have recognised that fixing societal problems starts with education and so unless Ofsted up their game and prioritise this specific sector and provide funding for high quality educators and resources as well as scrutinising how schools implement them then we are going to end up with some very nasty outcomes.
